Sreekumar, one of the most vocal critics of Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the handling of 2002 communal riots, has sent a letter on August 15 to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Since September 2010, Chittranjan Singh, an officer of the rank of Additional DGP, is heading Gujarat Police as 'in-charge DGP'.
In the two-page letter, Sreekumar has drawn attention to the fact that "the Gujarat government has been keeping four DGP posts vacant since August 31, 2010, without any valid administrative or professional grounds" and this had generated "immense frustration and extensive de-motivation" in the top-level police officers.
"Two officers with excellent performance records have retired from service since August 2010 in the rank of ADGP, and two more would be going on superannuation in December 2012 without the promotion to the rank of DGP.
"The act of keeping cadre posts vacant beyond six months by the state government is in flagrant violation of Rule 10 of the Indian Police Service Rules 1954," Sreekumar claimed.
The aggrieved IPS officers were wary of approaching courts, fearing "malicious punitive action" by government, he said.
"An in-charge DGP, devoid of tenure security, rank and grade related authority, powers, status and dignity, in contrast to full fledged DGP...Would be quite vulnerable to unethical manipulative machinations by the political and administrative hierarchy in the State government," Sreekumar said.
